Listening in online environments
Active listening strategies are all relevant no matter whether you need to listen to someone or something face to face or online. Therefore, the tips provided in the previous sections of this resource on listening to lectures and listening in interpersonal interactions can be equally applicable in online and face-to-face interaction.
One difference between online and face-to-face communications, however, is that in online communications the non-verbal cues to rely on (e.g. body language) are often limited compared to face-to-face interactions. In online environments, sometimes you might need to only rely on the sound features such as the rising and falling patten of the speaker’s voice, their voice volume, the emphasis with which they articulate certain words and phrases as visual cues might not be available (e.g. when a speaker’s video is turned off). Therefore, paying attention to auditory non-verbal cues becomes of a high importance while listening online.
Listening in online environments can have some advantages too. For example when you listen to asynchronous recorded lectures or other learning materials (e.g. videos), you’ll have the option to pause the recording and listen to it as many times as you like.